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gleaned as well as definitions of“forgotten sheaves” were provided(Peah 7) along with“droppings”(Peah 4.10). What constituted a field was specified, as were fields with mixed crops, partnerships, undivided estates, and so on. The farmer could not hide gleanings under a bundle of grain; when winds blew the gleanings away, an estimate of what should have been left was mandated(Peah 5:1). Such details and others demonstrated an effort to be fair and not to permit the natural inclination to minimize this tax to prevail.

The law took into account the peculiarities of the vine and date palm harvest and permitted the farmer to harvest and distribute the fruit rather than let it be gathered by the poor; if poor person, wished to harvest it themselves, however, permission had to be given(Peah 4.1, 2).

The farmer was protected against excessive crowding of the fields by limiting gleaning to three times per day. The gleaners were protected by an ordinance that forbade anything that could be used as a weapon from being taken into the field(Peah 4.4, 5). The farmer could not favor one poor person over another; the gleanings were on a“first come” basis(Peah 4:9), nor could he set it aside for his relatives(Peah 4:3). Special provisions were made for the elderly and weak among the poor(Peah 8.1). If there was doubt whether a gleaner was actually poor, he was initially believed and questioned later(Peah 8.2). The itinerant poor were permitted to glean(Peah 5.4) with a division of opinion of whether they should make restitution upon returning home(Peah 5.4) Mishnah Peah concluded, as it had begun, with a set of moral injunctions as at the beginning.

4. One text indicated that it was to be“consumed in the presence of God, ” in other words used for pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Deut. 14:22ff), but every third year it was to be given to the Levites(Deut. 14:27ff.). Another verse specified that it was for the poor and the Levite in the third year(Deut 26:12). A different text indicated that the tithe was simply for the Levites(Nu. 18:21), as the priests received first fruit along with other gifts that could be used to maintain the sanctuary.

A second tithe provided occasional funds to the poor, but it was primarily used for pilgrimages to Jerusalem . Only in the second and sixth year of a seven­

year cycle was it given to the poor.

Tithes were mentioned in 2 Chronicles.(31:2—12) but in none of the other later books. Details of the system of tithing were provided by two tractates of the Mishnah and in the Jerusalem Talmud, but as these laws applied only to the Land of Israel, they were academic, for a high percentage of the world Jewish population